Telcos, Hardware Is Sexy Again  sebastianbarros.substack.com Nov. 3, 2025, 8:59 a.m.
For more than a decade, the telecom industry has been busy trying to reinvent itself as something it is not. “Techco,” “Servco,” “Digital Operator”, all elegant slogans for an age that believed value came from software and platforms. Telcos sold towers, outsourced data centers, and trimmed engineering ranks to chase cloud partnerships and brand adjacency. It looked modern; it was strategically backward. While telcos were distancing themselves from hardware, the world quietly re-industrialized. AI transformed computing from a software abstraction into a physical process, a factory operation that consumes electricity, produces tokens, and generates cognition. The bottleneck is no longer spectrum or subscriber growth but the energy-to-intelligence ratio: how many joules it takes to deliver a decision. Every major technology company is now an energy company in disguise. Global CapEx tells the story.
Starlink bientôt sur iPhone ? Les pièces du puzzle se mettent en place www.lesnumeriques.com Oct. 30, 2025, 6:13 p.m.
SpaceX intègre désormais dans ses nouveaux satellites Starlink le même spectre radioélectrique qu'Apple utilise actuellement pour ses services d'urgence via Globalstar. Cette convergence technique arrive à un moment charnière : le président de Globalstar, James Monroe, évoquerait une cession de l'entreprise pour plus de 10 milliards de dollars, signal d'une possible distanciation avec Apple.
WiFi 8 : La révolution sans fil qui prépare le futur www.servicesmobiles.fr Oct. 29, 2025, 11:38 a.m.
La question de la disponibilité réelle du WiFi 8 reste en suspens. Les premières certifications par la WiFi Alliance sont attendues pour 2028, avec une première phase de tests prévus en 2027. En conséquence, pour voir cette technologie chez le consommateur dans sa forme finale, une large démocratisation ne serait attendue que pour 2030 et au-delà. Si le WiFi 7 fait l’actualité, le WiFi 8 n’est pas loin derrière. Plus qu’une simple connectivité d’appareils, il promet de créer un « écosystème réseau capable d’évoluer en temps réel avec les besoins », un futur où l’innovation et l’intelligence se conjuguent pour une expérience utilisateur sans précédent.
How to Get Our Telco Mojo Back (We’re Doing It All Wrong) sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 29, 2025, 11:37 a.m.
Telco used to be the most exciting place on Earth. We were the people who made the impossible happen. We connected continents, carried the first digital signals, and built mobile networks that turned communication into a human right. We were the engineers who bent physics to our will. Then something happened. We turned into administrators of connectivity. The industry that invented the digital age now spends more time in regulatory filings than in labs.
WoW: Nvidia Buys Into Nokia  sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 28, 2025, 5:09 p.m.
When Nvidia takes a billion-dollar stake in an old-guard telecom vendor, it’s not a financial gesture but a signal. A signal that the AI arms race is moving from datacenters into the network fabric itself. On October 28, 2025, Nokia announced that Nvidia will invest $1 billion in newly issued shares, acquiring roughly 166 million shares, or about 3.5% of the company, and forming a deep strategic alliance to co-develop 6G and AI-native networking technologies. Nokia’s stock jumped 18 % within hours.
Confession #13: Five Telco CEOs Predict the Future sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 27, 2025, 1:52 p.m.
Every CEO carries two playbooks: the one they present to investors and the one they keep for themselves. The first is filled with plans, metrics, and commitments; the second with doubts, observations, and patterns only visible after decades inside the machine.
Enquête sur l’accès aux droits sur les relations des usagers avec les services publics : que retenir ? www.defenseurdesdroits.fr Oct. 24, 2025, 9:50 a.m.
L’enquête Accès aux droits s’intéresse en particulier au rôle du numérique afin d’envisager les effets de la dématérialisation des services publics sur leur accessibilité. En ce sens, les répondants sont interrogés sur les difficultés rencontrées en ligne, un ajout par rapport à l’enquête de 2016, afin de documenter l’impact de la dématérialisation des services publics.Il en ressort qu’une part non négligeable de la population n’arrive pas à faire ses démarches administratives en ligne seule :  Moins d’une personne sur deux parvient à faire ses démarches en ligne, sans aide 36% déclarent avoir besoin d’une aide ponctuelle. Des difficultés qui touchent les plus jeunes, comme les plus vieux. Les moins de 34 ans et les plus de 55 ans font majoritairement face à des difficultés sur les démarches en ligne : 51% des 18-34 ans et 53% de 55-79 ans.
Everyone Talks About AI. Few Understand What It Means for Telcos. sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 23, 2025, 4:05 p.m.
Most telcos still haven’t come to terms with what AI truly means for their future. This is a 2007 iPhone moment on steroids, not another radio upgrade, not a “TechCo” rebrand, and certainly not a digital transformation checklist. AI is changing the very physics of how humans, and now machines, connect and interact across the digital and physical world.
The Telco identity crisis sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 20, 2025, 3:12 p.m.
Before 2007, Telcos knew precisely who they were.They built networks. They connected nations. They carried the weight of communication with pride. Telcos were infrastructure institutions: disciplined, engineered, predictable. Then, in 2007, everything changed. The iPhone turned connectivity into an afterthought. The network disappeared behind the screen, and the center of gravity shifted from infrastructure to experience. For the first time, the telco wasn’t the main act; it was the invisible stagehand behind the digital revolution.
Connecting the Disconnected: How Internet Access Transforms Lives in Low-Income Areas instituteofinterneteconomics.org Oct. 16, 2025, 5:25 p.m.
In a world increasingly reliant on digital connectivity, the phrase "digital divide" has become a common refrain. This divide highlights the stark contrast between those who have reliable Internet access and those who do not. In low-income areas, where barriers to connectivity can hinder educational opportunities, job prospects, and even access to healthcare, bridging this gap is more crucial than ever. Ensuring equitable Internet access has the power to transform lives in ways that are profound and far-reaching.
The Digital Telco : A Do-It-Yourself Guide sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 15, 2025, 3:57 p.m.
Most digital telco brands fail because they copy the form, not the logic. They launch with new colors, cheeky slogans, and influencer ads, but they keep the same DNA: legacy stack, corporate approvals, and tariff thinking. A digital logo wrapped around a paper process. Within a year, the app slows down, churn climbs, and the team that built it is moved back under “Consumer Marketing.” The post-mortem usually blames market saturation, but the truth is more straightforward: digital requires a different metabolism.
Forfaits mobiles : les Français n’utilisent en moyenne que 10% de leurs données, selon une étude www.lefigaro.fr Oct. 13, 2025, 7:40 p.m.
Une étude réalisée par le comparateur Selectra relève que 61% des offres commercialisées par les opérateurs télécoms incluent plus de 100 Go de data, «soit six fois plus que le besoin réel» des utilisateurs.
Confessions of a Telco Executive: What Vendors Know (and We Deny) sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 13, 2025, 12:56 p.m.
This week, the confession comes from the other side of the table. From the people who have built our systems, sat through our meetings, and quietly watched the same story repeat across continents: the vendors.They have seen how decisions are made, how timelines are invented, and how politics replaces logic. They know when a project will fail before the first contract is signed. They understand that most telcos no longer innovate; they negotiate. Procurement has replaced product. Compliance has replaced creativity.
The Evolution of the Telco CEO: 2000–2025 sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 8, 2025, 3:30 p.m.
Telco CEOs have changed as much as the networks they run. Two decades ago, most were engineers obsessed with coverage maps; today, they’re diplomats managing politics, investors, and cloud partners.
Confessions of a Telco Executive: The Telco Fallen Empire sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 6, 2025, 12:19 p.m.
In 2008, Europe’s telcos were the most valuable companies in technology. Today, their worth has fallen by more than 80%. We spoke to insiders to understand how the empire collapsed.
The Lie of AI Agents: What They Really Can (and Can’t) Do sebastianbarros.substack.com Oct. 1, 2025, 11:40 a.m.
In classical AI, an agent is nothing mystical. It is a system that perceives, makes decisions, and acts within an environment. A thermostat is an agent. A Roomba is an agent. The term never implied consciousness or autonomy. It was a clean abstraction for building systems that respond to inputs and produce outputs in pursuit of a goal.In the era of generative AI, the word “agent” has been hijacked. Vendors present agents as if they were digital employees who can sit in your enterprise, learn the ropes, and work unsupervised.
Mesh Networking using ESP32 www.youtube.com Sept. 29, 2025, 1:16 p.m.
Instead of every device depending on a single WiFi router, ESP32 boards link together, passing data from node to node. The result? A self-healing, decentralized network that keeps devices connected, even if one path fails. 
100 000 cartes SIM : menace ciblée sur les communications US www.servicesmobiles.fr Sept. 29, 2025, 1:15 p.m.
Derrière cette affaire, la découverte est impressionnante : plus de 300 serveurs SIM, abritant pas moins de 100 000 cartes SIM, étaient dissimulés sur différents sites stratégiques. Ces équipements n’étaient pas cantonnés à des appels anonymes : ils pouvaient tout autant permettre des attaques complexes sur l’infrastructure mobile, comme le sabotage d’antennes-relais ou l’exécution d’attaques par déni de service. À travers une communication chiffrée et opaque, ces dispositifs offraient aussi un canal privilégié entre des individus déjà surveillés par la police fédérale et des acteurs étatiques étrangers.
Aéroports connectés : la 5G et le Wi-Fi 6 révolutionnent le voyage www.servicesmobiles.fr Sept. 29, 2025, 1:13 p.m.
Les terminaux d’aujourd’hui ne ressemblent plus guère à ceux d’hier. Désormais, la transformation numérique s’impose comme le socle de l’aviation moderne, révolutionnant bien au-delà des simples systèmes de réservation. Grâce à une alliance de la 5G, du Wi-Fi 6, des réseaux privés et de l’edge computing, les aéroports se métamorphosent en véritables plateformes connectées. Cette mutation n’a rien d’anodin : elle vise autant l’efficacité opérationnelle que l’expérience vécue par chaque voyageur.